Supplementary
by teanotes
Summary: In the middle of moping about taxes and instant rice, Leo gets a late night visitor he's not too sure he's happy with.


a/n: I was just practice writing until I accidentally liper-ed terribly

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_Supplementary_

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Stacks of sloppily cutout coupons for grocery shopping and tied up envelopes of bills lay silently on the table in front of Leo as he wonders where the hell his life is going if he's living on cup-a-noodle every week.

There's a battered Webster's Dictionary used as a paperweight at the corner of the table that used to belong to Annabeth until Travis snatched it and gave it to Leo for his birthday. The joke consisted of Travis telling him to look up the words "finance", "mortgage", "taxes", and "life" before it was too late. Leo was sure it was only a joke before, but now he really wants to wring the guy's neck for setting up a jinx.

He feels a headache coming on and tries to forget that all that's left in the pantry is a box of instant rice and a bottle of sparkling cider leftover from New Year's. Maybe if he tries hard enough he'd find loose change under the throw pillows and pretend it's enough for the rent.

Unknowingly, Leo's state of self pity led to him knocking over a picture frame as he stretched arms outwardly. It made a clatter on the kitchen tile that zeroed him back into reality.

He knows this one well. It's decorated with glitter and painted gold and had the art technique of a kid in arts and crafts class, which was true to an extent.

In the picture, a large amount of teens and kids were shown in orange and purple, covered in black and blue, right in front of a big, white house. Beat up and blurry, they still managed to smile with a certainty that Leo couldn't recall felt like.

Ever since time up and did its duty, Leo hasn't talked much of the gang as of late. When he's feeling particularly drunk and sad, he occasionally wishes he could, but with most of them halfway across the continent, he doesn't exactly see any upcoming reunions possible anytime soon.

As he bends to pick up the photo, the loud buzz of the doorbell makes him almost drop it again. He stands and walks out of the small kitchen into his small living room.

Leo doesn't feel like talking to anyone before. Hopefully it's not the landowner. He's already delayed the rent for a week, and he's dead meat if she's changed her mind.

_Dead meat_ is what his head repeats when he opens the door and sees who it is.

"Piper," says Leo. "What are you doing here?"

Piper McLean, covered in a short trench coat and a blindingly red scarf, stood slack-faced and brilliant at his doorway.

She ignores his tone and smiles. "Nice to see you, too, Valdez. What, it's been a year since we've seen each other and _that's_ the greeting I get?"

Leo doesn't return her enjoyment. "Hello. May I _please_ ask what are you doing here?"

"Hey!" she says, frowning. "I'm trying for pleasantries."

"We've grown out of that," Leo says flatly. "And two. It's been _two_ years since we've seen each other. Washington D.C. and the dracaena infestation, 'member?"

"But who's counting, right?" Piper asks sheepishly. She coughs into wooly mittens. "It's getting cold, anyway. Are you gonna invite me in?"

"Who says you're welcome?"

"Who says I'm not?"

Rolling his eyes, Leo goes back inside and lets Piper make her way in. He drops on his couch, folds his arms and stares as she stands motionlessly in the middle of his den.

"Comfy place," she says.

"How did you find out where I live?" he begins.

Piper shrugs. "Followed the breadcrumb trail to wherever a currently unemployed mechanic failed to pay first month's rent at."

"Did you come here just to make fun and say 'I told you so'?" An arm raised to massage his temples. "If so, you can let the door hit you on the way out."

"I'm here to ask you to come back," she tells him. "Annabeth and them need you right now."

Leo sighs. "There was a reason I left camp. I'm not a patient teacher and there's only so much teenage hormones I can deal with before I break."

"I got that message clear enough," Piper muttered low enough for him to pick up.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Because that's what you do," Her voice raises and her knuckle turn white. He hasn't realized they were tightened up before. "You run away when things get to tough. When you think you can't work it through. You give up, Leo, and you barely even try."

"I didn't run away or give up!" Leo stood up in protest. "Surprise―I grew up! Camp Halfblood doesn't need as much adult demigods and you know that. I came here to make a life for myself that I never got to have when my life was planned out by a stupid sadistic sleeping goddess who enjoyed it when I suffered!"

"When _you_ suffered?" Piper repeats, outraged. "Oh, so this is really all about that, isn't it? _You've_ suffered, so everyone else who hasn't gone through as much as you have doesn't need as much pampering as you do!"

"_Pampering?_" Leo says. "Want to talk about _pampering_, little miss Hollywood actress?"

Piper jerks back and faces down towards her feet. "You know I'm just doing it for my father."

He almost doesn't feel terrible. "That excuse only works so much when you're _not_ partying 'til you're dead and making pretty with every dumb male supermodel actor you meet!"

Furrowing her eyebrows, Piper asks, "What?"

"You know what I mean! It's all over the tabloids―gods, Piper, I may not be as well off as you are but I still know how to read."

"_What?_" She whispers, deathly quiet. "And you _believed_ it?"

"I didn't know what to believe," falters Leo. "Your father _died_ last year, Piper. I don't know what you'd do."

"And you think throwing myself away is how I grieve? Do you even know me at _all?_" Piper's voice cracks and nearly does Leo. "I've been on one date, Leo. _One_. And it wasn't even a real one. It was business related! Gods, if I knew you were going to be so big brother about it―"

"I'm not being big brother. I'm being me." Leo shifts shakily and sits down again. "You've always been my best friend, Pipes. I've always regretted not being there for you last year when your dad passed. I'm sorry I lashed―I'm just kind of generally pissed you'd go everywhere around the country doing your kickass job and being all saintly back at Camp while I'm here cutting out coupons for Big Saver and that Indian restaurant down the corner. You were always better of without me and I always seemed to need somebody to hang on to. I wanted to be with you."

His revelation ends with Piper staring at his head for a minute before squeezing in the couch beside him. "I have a confession," she says. "Annabeth didn't really send me to call for you back."

Leo snorts. "Figured. Not like anybody really needs the sidekick back in action."

"Valdez," Piper says, exasperated. "I came by myself because I needed to see you. And you're not a sidekick."

"You did?"

"Obviously, I planned our interaction to be less yell-y and more witty banter, but I guess I need to work on that."

"Yeah," he agrees. "So if you didn't come here to warn me of my impending eviction notice, why did you come?"

Piper goes all silent before Leo realizes that Piper McLean doesn't _do_ silent. "For, y'know. A thing. Visiting you and all."

"That's bull," he says.

"I know," she says.

Suddenly, she's standing again and heading towards the door faster than Percy could eat a box of Dominoes.

"I think I'm gonna go," says Piper, avoiding eye contact. The air was thick. "I already, well, saw you, so... I think I'm done here."

"What? Why now?" Leo follows after her before she could officially leave his apartment. The door was open and let in the cold weather. He shrugs on his own coat in a hurry.

"It's nothing, I just―" She steps outside and he automatically follows.

"At least let me walk you to wherever you're staying. What was the use of coming all the way here?"

Leo is used to confusion. If he thinks about it, it's one of the only consistent things in his life, sad as it is. But this is totally uncalled for.

Piper blinks hard under the moonlight that seeps through the apartment complex.

Before anything else, he's being grabbed by his coat lapels and his face meets hers with a definite, swift slam. It's not complex or law-defying or deep; not like anything he expects, but he should've grown out of expectations by now.

When the shock dies down, his hands eventually inch around her hips and hers evenly tug at his shirt hems. For some reason he's relieved he left out his suspenders from his ensemble today or else it'd be the only remaining thing to bring him back to earth if it snapped.

Her mouth tastes like cinnamon and toothpaste―though he's not sure which he prefers―and it's not like it's the near apocalypse, so this time he gets to savor it.

They brake away and all Leo really wants now is to hold her hand, so he reaches out and goes for it. The weather outside is near freezing, but he finds himself trying not to set himself on fire, which he hasn't for a whole two years, but suddenly he's forgotten how to. It's hard.

"Oh," he realizes. "Piper?"

"Sorry, gods," she says, "I'm sorry. I just―well, no, I'm not. That was great. But, Leo, oh gods, I'm so sorry."

It's not so sudden when he has his lips pressed to hers again and tells her she doesn't need to be sorry; this was the only thing that's even slowly making sense and he wants her to know that before he screws it all up and has to go back calculating how many more days before he's officially bankrupt.

"Not screwing up," Piper says between kisses. "Very nice."

"I hope your lack of pronouns supports that," he laughs and holds her so their foreheads touch. Leo has decided he likes both cinnamon and toothpaste equally.

"I'm not sure when I realized. When did you?" she asks. "I mean, are we doing the right thing?"

"I don't think 'right' or 'wrong' are answers you need to hear." There's nothing else Leo could give her but a smile and a kiss on the forehead. "I don't know about you, but I feel like a gazillion drachmas right about now."

Piper tilts her head back and laughs like she used to. Television worthy pearly whites flash at him. "That's what you said when Buford learned how to polish his own desktop successfully."

"It was an achievement worth my pride," he defends.

"So," says Piper, "what now?"

Leo scratches his head. "Want to help me do my taxes?"

"Taxes, huh?"

"I can also offer apple cider and rice, if that makes it more appealing."

Sometimes, between all the monster hunting and fighting evil and evil monster loans, Leo forgets that life could be pretty damn swell if he tried.

Eyes twinkling, Piper led him by hand inside his apartment and closed the door behind them. Needless to say, together they―yeah,_ did some taxes_. It was a good night.


End file.
